The present invention relates to a steam sprayer used for ironing textile products, including clothes.
Prior-art steam sprayers, which iron out the wrinkles in clothes and other fabrics by providing steam, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,464 and Japanese Patent Examined Publication No. 52-2030. Such steam sprayers include i) a vaporizing chamber heated by a heater, ii) a tank storing water for the vaporizing chamber, and iii) a pump unit sending the water in the tank to the vaporizing chamber.
Steam is generated in the vaporizing chamber and spouted out through steam ejection holes disposed at a steam-ejecting section to clothes and other fabrics for ironing them. The steam-ejecting section is made of a hard material, such as a high-temperature-resistant plastic. The steam-ejecting section contains a brush disposed so as to encircle the steam ejection holes. With the brush, clothes are brushed over and any waste yarn and other adherents are brushed off while the clothes are ironed by steam.
Such a structured steam sprayer spouts out steam to clothes without pressing them. The sprayed steam permeates into fabric fibers, by which the wrinkles in an item are ironed out. Furthermore, the brushing can provide the item with a nice finishing touch during ironing.
Only the spraying steam, however, is not enough for neatly fixing the form of the item. According to the prior-art structure in which the brush is placed around the steam-ejecting section, the brush offers a weak pulling force to an ironed item in the brushing direction. Therefore, with one hand, the user has to hold the sprayer to operate the pump unit for spewing steam, and with the other hand, the, user has to neatly fix the form of the item. This has been an inconvenience for ironing.
In addition, a problem may arise when an item is ironed with the steam ejecting section pressed against the item. That is, the material of the item can be damaged if the steam has a higher temperature than an acceptable level of the material.
As another type of ironing device, Japanese Utility Model Examined Publication No. 47-39997 discloses an iron having a bag filled with heated air, which is pressed against an item to iron out the wrinkles.
The air bag flexibly changes its shape fitting with the form of clothes, allowing the iron to work without spoiling the lines and drapes of clothes for dressing. However, the iron neither comes equipped with a certain xe2x80x9cwrinkle offxe2x80x9d function, for example, by steam, nor with any particular function that can iron out the wrinkles of the item while neatly fixing its form. Furthermore, from the structural necessity that the air bag is supplied with air by a compressor, the user has to use the iron with the compressor tethered thereto. This has made the iron to be user-unfriendly.
The present invention addresses the problems above. It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a user-friendly iron with an increased iron-out function. According to the invention, steam is generated in a vaporizing chamber and then spouted out through a steam-ejecting section. The steam-ejecting section has an ironing surface with high frictional resistance characteristics at a position touching clothes to be ironed.
With the structure, the user can iron out the wrinkles of the item by spouting steam, and at the same time, can fix the form of the item by applying an adequate pulling force. Thus, a steam sprayer with easy-handling and an increased wrinkle-off function can be obtained.